The Shape of the Essay Field

June 2025 An essay has to tell people something they don't already know.

2025 年 6 月 一篇文章必须告诉人们一些他们还不知道的事情。

But there are three different reasons people might not know something, and they yield three very different kinds of essays.

但人们可能不知道某件事的原因有三种不同，因此他们会写出三种截然不同的论文。

One reason people won't know something is if it's not important to know.

人们不知道某件事的原因之一是知道它是否不重要。

That doesn't mean it will make a bad essay.

这并不意味着它会成为一篇糟糕的文章。

For example, you might write a good essay about a particular model of car.

例如，您可能会写一篇关于特定型号汽车的好文章。

Readers would learn something from it.

读者会从中学到一些东西。

It would add to their picture of the

这会增加他们的形象

world.

世界。

For a handful of readers it might even spur some kind of epiphany.

对于少数读者来说，它甚至可能会激发某种顿悟。

But unless this is a very unusual car it's not critical for everyone to know about it.

但除非这是一辆非常不寻常的汽车，否则每个人都知道它并不重要。

[ 1 ] If something isn't important to know, there's no answer to the question of why people don't know it.

[1] 如果某件事不重要，那么“为什么人们不知道它”这个问题就没有答案。

Not knowing random facts is the default.

不知道随机事实是默认的。

But if you're going to write about things that are important to know, you have to ask why your readers don't already

但如果你要写一些重要的事情，你必须问为什么你的读者还没有写

know them.

认识他们。

Is it because they're inexperienced, or because they're obtuse?

是因为他们缺乏经验，还是因为他们迟钝？

So the three reasons readers might not already know what you tell them are (a) that it's not important, (b) that they're obtuse, or (c) that they're inexperienced.

因此，读者可能还不知道你告诉他们的内容的三个原因是（a）这不重要，（b）他们迟钝，或者（c）他们缺乏经验。

The reason I did this breakdown was to get at the following fact, which might have seemed controversial if I'd led with it, but should be obvious now.

我进行此细分的原因是为了了解以下事实，如果我带头的话，这可能会引起争议，但现在应该很明显了。

If you're writing for smart people about important

如果您正在为聪明人撰写重要的内容

things, you're writing for the young.

事情，你正在为年轻人写作。

Or more precisely, that's where you'll have the most effect.

或者更准确地说，这就是你能发挥最大作用的地方。

Whatever you say should also be at least somewhat novel to you, however old you are.

无论你说什么，无论你多大，至少对你来说应该有些新奇。

It's not an essay otherwise, because an essay is something you write to figure something out.

否则它就不是一篇文章，因为一篇文章是你为了弄清楚某些事情而写的。

But whatever you figure out will presumably be more of a surprise to younger readers than it is to you.

但无论你发现什么，对于年轻读者来说，可能都会比你更感到惊讶。

There's a continuum of surprise.

惊喜不断。

At one extreme, something you read

在一个极端，你读过的东西

can change your whole way of thinking.

可以改变你的整个思维方式。

The Selfish Gene did this to me.

自私的基因对我做了这样的事。

It was like suddenly seeing the other interpretation of an ambiguous image: you can treat genes rather than organisms as the protagonists, and evolution becomes easier to understand when you do.

这就像突然看到了一个模棱两可的图像的另一种解释：你可以把基因而不是有机体视为主角，当你这样做时，进化论就会变得更容易理解。

At the other extreme, writing merely puts into words something readers were already thinking — or thought they were.

在另一个极端，写作只是将读者已经在思考的事情——或者他们认为的事情——用语言表达出来。

The impact of an essay is how much it changes readers' thinking

一篇文章的影响力在于它在多大程度上改变了读者的思维

multiplied by the importance of the topic.

乘以主题的重要性。

But it's hard to do well at both.

但两者都很难做好。

It's hard to have big new ideas about important topics.

对于重要的话题很难有新的想法。

So in practice there's a tradeoff: you can change readers' thinking a lot about moderately important things, or change it a little about very important ones.

因此，在实践中存在一个权衡：你可以改变读者对中等重要事物的思考，或者对非常重要的事物进行一些改变。

But with younger readers the tradeoff shifts.

但对于年轻读者来说，这种权衡发生了变化。

There's more room to change their thinking, so there's a bigger

改变想法的空间更大，所以有更大的空间

payoff for writing about important things.

写重要事情的回报。

The tradeoff isn't a conscious one, at least not for me.

这种权衡不是有意识的，至少对我来说不是。

It's more like a kind of gravitational field that writers work in.

它更像是作家工作的一种引力场。

But every essayist works in it, whether they realize it or not.

但每个散文家都在其中工作，无论他们是否意识到。

This seems obvious once you state it, but it took me a long time to understand.

一旦你说出来，这似乎是显而易见的，但我花了很长时间才明白。

I knew I wanted to write for smart people about important topics.

我知道我想为聪明人撰写有关重要主题的文章。

I noticed empirically that I seemed to be writing

我凭经验注意到我似乎在写

for the young.

对于年轻人来说。

But it took me years to understand that the latter was an automatic consequence of the former.

但我花了很多年才明白，后者是前者的自然结果。

In fact I only really figured it out as I was writing this essay.

事实上，我在写这篇文章时才真正弄清楚了这一点。

Now that I know it, should I change anything?

既然我知道了，我应该改变什么吗？

I don't think so.

我不这么认为。

In fact seeing the shape of the field that writers work in has reminded me that I'm not optimizing for returns in it.

事实上，看到作家所从事的领域的形状提醒我，我并没有针对该领域的回报进行优化。

I'm not trying to surprise readers of any particular age; I'm trying to surprise

我并不是想让任何特定年龄段的读者感到惊讶；我不想让任何特定年龄段的读者感到惊讶。我试图给你惊喜

myself.

我自己。

The way I usually decide what to write about is by following curiosity.

我通常决定写什么的方式是跟随好奇心。

I notice something new and dig into it.

我注意到一些新的东西并深入研究它。

It would probably be a mistake to change that.

改变这一点可能是一个错误。

But seeing the shape of the essay field has set me thinking.

但看到论文领域的形状让我开始思考。

What would surprise young readers?

什么会让年轻读者感到惊讶？

Which important things do people tend to learn late?

哪些重要的事情人们往往学得晚？

Interesting question.

有趣的问题。

I should think about that.

我应该考虑一下。

Note [ 1

注意[1